Dream Girl

I dreamed of Dinah two nights ago, and I was very happy for the visit. In the dream, she just sort of trotted around this corner and came running to me...but I woke up or something happened before I got to pet her. I remember saying in the dream, "Hey, there's Dinah!" and feeling like she wasn't really gone after all. But there she was, exactly as cute and happy as I remember.

Strangely, when I woke up I was only a little disappointed that it was only a dream. I mean, of course I'd love to have her back. When I was still raw and in the denial stage, I wished for there to be some kind of magical way for her to come back to me, but I'd have to keep it a secret from the rest of the world, like in some sort of dark comedy. You can imagine my breakdown tearful reaction to the pilot for Pushing Daisies, right? (Seriously, I would have made that deal.) But somehow waking up from that dream made me feel happy to have gotten to see her again, even briefly.

At the risk of sounding completely insane, I will say that I think our furry friends visit in dreams after they pass. I'm fairly certain that our one dog, Bubba, visited Boots almost every night in her dreams to play with her. She adored him, and went into a deep, deep depression after he died. (I can't think of anything more tragi-comic than a depressed Basset Hound.) Boots would frequently run and bark in her sleep -- I can only imagine that she was dreaming of playing with Bubba.

Anyway, I'm missing Dinah and Bootsie terribly again/still.

Time to put on some sunglasses and go for a run.

Labor Day

This is it.

Win or lose. Official finisher or DNF. I will not be broken.

Track my progress here. I am Athlete #813.

Music Monday 2.11.08

I'm wondering how many points I get for lasting until February before actually complaining about winter. Zero? Well, that's more than the high yesterday, so I guess I'll take it.

In the meantime, here's a smattering of tunes that remind me of running in the desert. They're my own personal faves, but not all are necessarily about being outside. That's a picture of my front yard in Cruces. I'll try not to get too weepy thinking about it...

Wide Open Spaces
Dixie Chicks

Running on Empty
Jackson Browne

Against the Wind
Bob Seger

Running Down a Dream
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Life on the Road
The Kinks

Better Things
The Kinks

She's Got Everything
Dave Davies

I'm Not Like Everybody Else
Dave Davies

The Climb
No Doubt

Sunday Morning
No Doubt

End it on This
No Doubt

Not California Dreamin' but...

I miss the desert.

Are you happy midwestern winter?! You finally broke me. I want to run outside!

An Exercise in Dream Interpretation

Here's the wacky dream I just had:

I'm at a triathlon -- my first race of the season. I kick major ass on the swim -- I'm the first one out of the water! And then the whole thing falls apart: in transition I forget my shoes and I try to clip in wearing high-heeled boots (!) then I ride to this storage closet to find my shoes...but my lead was so good coming off the swim that I'm still in contention! But alas, my bike skills are still weak enough that I end up in the back of the pack where I belong.

The alarm goes off just as I'm entering T2.

You think this has anything to do with the fact that I've been hitting the swimming hard and not the other two as much? And maybe I have some anxiety about the fact that my tri room is still not organized?

*sigh*

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.